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Mustang Men Ranked Seventh in NSCAA/adidas Preseason Poll

SMU to Face Oral Roberts in Preseason Exhibition Game Saturday Night (Aug. 19) at Richland College

Aug. 15, 2006

DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU men's soccer team enters the 2006 season ranked seventh in the nation in the NSCAA/adidas Division I preseason poll. Defending national champion Maryland tops the preseason poll followed by Connecticut, New Mexico, Virginia, North Carolina, and Clemson. Conference USA member South Carolina is ranked 24th
in the nation.

The NSCAA/adidas preseason poll can be found at http://www.nscaa.com/seniorRes.php?it=83

The Mustangs finished the 2005 campaign with a record of 14-6-3 and reached the semifinals of the College Cup. SMU takes on Oral Roberts this Saturday evening in a preseason tune-up. In order to give the new sod at Westcott Field a chance to grow, SMU will take on ORU at Richland College (Field 7) beginning at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free.

SMU opens the regular season on the road (Tulsa's Golden Hurricane Classic), taking on Wisconsin on Friday, Aug. 25 at 5:00 p.m. and Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Sunday, Aug. 27 at noon. The Mustangs' home-opener (SMU Radisson Hotel Invitational) is slated for Friday, Sept. 1 at UT-Dallas (Stadium Field) vs. Cincinnati at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, Sept. 2, SMU faces Cal at UT-Dallas (Stadium Field) at 7:30 p.m.

SMU will resume play at Westcott Field on Sept. 8-9 with the SMU Mi Cocina Classic. Participating in this year's Classic is SMU, Tulsa, Brown and Indiana.

These ratings do not mean much at this point but merely reflect the lack of respect for what we have here. Eastern and CA teams get much better consistent press. I have to dream where we would be this year if both Kenny Cooper and Ramon Nunez were on the team instead of FC Dallas. In any event, what counts are results on the field. Need to press hard to get back to the final four.

Don't forget Alex Smith, who also should be playing.

The fact is we don't have a lot of senior stars, so we're not going to get excess hype. But the NSCAA poll is the only one with merit, since it's voted on by coaches. No. 7 seems about right to me, since the guys overachieved and then we graduated Duke Hashimoto, David Chun, etc.

Seven's about right. We still have a young team with holes to fill. The ACC is a tough conference and loaded. UNC, Clemson (another final four team), Maryland (defending champion), UVa, Duke and Virginia Tech. U Conn has a great program and they are making noise in the Big East. New Mexico will get a chance to play us this year, so we'll see how good we are against them. I'd rather us start ranked lower than ranked number 1.